Thanks to everyone who reviewed or added this story to their story alert / favorites!! It means a lot to me!
I'm really sorry it me so long to update, but I think I had some sort of a writer's block. I tried to write, but I didn't really like any of it^^
I'm still not fully satisfied with this chapter, but I hope you'll enjoy reading it anyway!!!


"She's in the kitchen", Jenna said, "You know the way, I gotta leave now".
"Thank you Jenna. Have a nice evening".

It was his voice!
He was here. He really was OK.

A moment later she saw him coming into the kitchen. He had a small, almost shy smile on his lips.
For a moment none of them said a word. She noticed his messy hair and that he looked almost vulnerable.
She had never seen him like this before. He lost his best friend two days ago, what do I expect?

He was the first to speak."Hi Elena. I um, got your message on my voice mail. I'm sorry I didn't answer your texts, but I was away and had left my phone at home".

She had been angry with him, but now that she saw his apologetic expression and the sadness that was there in his eyes, she forgot all about it.
"Stefan, hey", she stopped stirring the pot with the spaghetti and took a few steps towards him. "It's good to see you. Where have you been?"
His thoughts drifted off to his day in the forest and to him almost tasting human blood again.
"Just hanging here and there, I had to clear my head".
"How are you doing?"
He forced himself a smile. "I'm fine. Don't worry".
But Elena felt that he wasn't telling her the truth.
"You don't have to spare my feelings. You can't be fine when you've lost your best friend to days ago".
At the mentioning of Lexi he felt tears coming again, but he used all his force to hide them from Elena, he didn't want her to see him sad, while she was struggling with so much more.
He needed to be strong for her, not the other way round.
"It's okay, really".
But the glitter of tears in his eyes gave him away. Before she could think of something to say Elena simply put her arms around him and pulled him towards her body.
He felt his strength cracking in. It was their first close physical contact since she had found out that he was a vampire.
He gently returned her hug.

She was so close to him, she knew that technically he could kill her easily, but right now she pushed away these thoughts. Right now she just wanted to comfort him.
"I'm so sorry about your loss. And I really mean it, I mean I of all people know what it feels like and..." her voice broke off.
For another moment they just remained silent.

"Thank you Elena", he slowly released her from his hug. With his remarkable senses he could feel that underneath her warm hug she was tensed up.
She was still scared of what he really was.
"I think you should check your spaghetti, they must be done by now", he said to distract her.
"Oh no no no, I think I can throw them all away now", she exclaimed while she decanted the pasta into a sieve.
"Now I ruined your dinner. I'm really sorry.
Look, I think I'd better go now, I just wanted to come and tell you in person that I'm fine".
"Oh you don't have to go yet", Elena said and was surprised at herself for having said that out loud.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea. I don't wanna bother you or anything", he said seriously.
"It's not like I'm going anywhere tonight, so why don't you stay and we could watch a movie or something", she didn't want him to be gone.
He looked like he really needed a friend now, she didn't want him to be all alone in the big house. And maybe she needed him too.
He looked deep into her eyes and then nodded.
"Okay but let me help you with the food?!",

They decided to give the spaghetti another try. Elena was cutting some tomatoes for the sauce while Stefan put the pasta into the boiling water.
"I never saw you eat any human food. Can you eat it? I mean does it taste any good? You know I've read twilight and there the vampires say that food tastes like dirt to them".
"Twilight's just a book you know", he said amused, "and for us human food just tastes the way it does for you. Thank God, I couldn't live without pasta or the delicious dunkin' donuts".
Now Elena had to laugh too. "So you enjoy our food?".
"Absolutely. But we don't need to eat, so maybe that's why you haven't seen me eat anything yet. But that's gonna change in the next hour", he said with a wink.

They sat down at the table and Stefan gave them both a serving of the pasta. She watched him as he took a spoonful to his mouth.
He ate the spaghetti without grimacing. "It's nothing special, you know", he told her with a grin when he noticed her staring.
She felt her cheeks flush. "I'm sorry for staring",
"You don't have to be", he definitely wasn't angry. He was too happy to be with Elena.
He gave her a warm smile and they continued eating.

"Can I ask you something?", Elena said after they had just finished eating.
"Sure, what do want to know",
"It's about Damon.... you know you said you were going to..",
He immediately grasped what she was thinking about.
"Oh, no, I didn't kill him. I couldn't. It maybe hard to understand but after all he's still my brother. I just taught him a lesson, or at least I hope so".
"So where is he now?",
"I don't know, apparently not in this town. But he might come back". He said with a grim expression.
"So what do you want to watch?" she asked quickly to get his mind on something else.
"I don't really care. You can pick a movie".

She decided for "The Holiday" a romantic, feel-good movie.
They both sat down on the couch but Stefan made sure to give Elena enough space so she wouldn't be frightened by his presence.
It hurt him that it was like this now, it had been so much easier when she hadn't known about him being a vampire.

Elena pressed the "play" button and settled back into the sofa. It was then that she noticed Stefan sitting a little further away than it was normal.
"He doesn't want to scare me", she thought. "He really tries his best. Why is there still this feeling that tells me to stay away from him?"

The movie started and for a while non of them said a word.
After two thirds of the movie Elena felt that her eyelids becoming heavier and heavier.
She tried to stay a wake but the fact that she already knew this movie and that it was -apart from the tv screen- almost completely dark in the room didn't really help a lot.
Eventually she just gave in and closed her eyes.

The final credits set in and Stefan turned to Elena when he noticed she was fast asleep. He slid closer to her and softly brushed her cheek. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep, so carefree, without any worries.
"I wish you didn't know about me being a vampire. I don't want you to be scared of what I am. If you could just believe that I won't hurt you...
Perhaps it'd be better if I stayed away from you, but I just cant..." he murmured more to himself than really to Elena.
A moment later he carefully uplifted her and carried her upstairs into her room. He was afraid that he'd wake her up but she remained asleep even when he put her onto her bed and covered her with a blanket.
She really must've been tired.

Stefan went back into kitchen to clean the dishes and the little mess they had left behind. He had to think about how surprised she had been when she had seen him eating food.
Somehow it made him smile that she had been so fascinated by it.
After the kitchen was back in a normal condition so that Jenna wasn't going to die from a heart attack in the morning he grabbed his jacket and decided to go.
It was already 00:30 am in the morning. Though he didn't really need as much sleep as humans did he still felt pretty tired.

Suddenly he heard Elena screaming upstairs.
At non-human speed he ran up the stairs and into her room.
"Noo please don't. Mum! Dad!" she yelled frantically.
The next second she woke up with tears streaming down her face. In a second he was sitting by her side.
"Hey Elena, hey, it's alright. It was just a dream".
She still looked terrified. "It's okay. You're awake now". She looked at him confused and scared.
"What? What are you doing here?"
"You fell asleep during the movie and then I took you to bed, I was just about to leave when I heard your scream"
She looked frustrated now. "Oh no, I did it again".
"It's not your first nightmare?"
"No not really", she sighed and got up from her bed.
"Where are you going?",
"I need something to drink", she said and went to the bathroom.
When she came back the tears on her face were gone and she looked much more composed than before.
"Hey, is everything alright?", he walked towards her and soothingly put a hand on her arm.
She looked like she was going to say, "yeah everything's fine", but then she finally let her guard down. "I don't know Stefan. It is all just too much to take in.
I know that they're gone but a part of me still hope's that they're coming back. Doesn't that sound crazy? I need to accept that they are gone..."
"No Elena no, what you feel is totally normal. You loved them and they have always been a part of your life, you can't just get passed this in a few months.
Such a loss stays with us so much longer than just a few months", it hurt him to see her in such pain.
"But I don't want this. I just want to be OK. I want everything to be okay", the tears were dwelling up again in her eyes,
"Why did that happen to us? What did we do wrong? I want my parents back!", she sobbed under tears.

There were no words he could say to ease her pain. He so much wanted to tell her they'd come back, but you can't bring dead people back to live.
Not even a vampire could do such a thing.
He wanted to hold her in her arms, but he didn't know if this was going to make her feel even worse.
But he didn't need to say something.
"Can you hold me in your arms for a moment?" she asked with tears still streaming down her face and her body shacking.
Immediately he gently put his arms around her body and pressed her close to him.
He didn't let go of her for a long time. She had buried her face into his chest and was crying silently. He stroke over her back and kissed her forehead from time to time.

~***~

A little later she let go of him and they both sat down on her bed. "Thanks Stefan, for looking after me and just being there for me".
"Anytime." He grabbed her hand and placed a soft kiss on it.
"Do you want to talk about your parents?" he asked.
"Not tonight. Maybe another time. You wanna talk about Lexi?".
He shook his head. "Like you said, maybe another time. Well maybe I should go now. Let you get some sleep".
"I don't think I wanna go back to bed now. One nightmare is enough for tonight".
"Don't be afraid". He put his arms around her again and she snuggled up to him. She was much more at ease with him now.
She softly placed a kiss on his neck and slid closer to him.
He returned her hug and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Elena looked up at him, his faces was now only inches away from hers. None of them seemed to know what to say or do next.
Then he slowly leaned closer to her. She could feel her heart racing and she could still hear the little voice inside her head that told her to stay away from him, but this time she didn't listen to it. She just closed her eyes and placed her lips on his. He immediately kissed her back. At first it was a careful, hesitant kiss.
Then he put a hand on her neck and pressed her body closer to his. They started to kiss each other with more passion, all the carefulness gone. She let out a low sigh when she felt his hot breath on her ear. With one swift movement he laid back on the bed and pulled her on top of him. They looked at each other and she had the feeling that he could see right into her soul.
"I missed you", he murmured while he caressed her check and started to press kisses on her neck.
She knew that his teeth were at the most vulnerable part of her body, but she didn't shy away from him. "I missed you too".
Slowly she pushed up his T-Shirt. With one hand she traced along his chest and admired his well-trained body.
She looked back into his eyes and saw his wonderful, breathtaking smile.
"You're so beautiful".
Stefan took off his shirt and gave Elena another kiss on her exposed neck. She had this perfect smell that he was sure he could pick out of thousands.
Suddenly he felt his thirst arise inside of him. His eyes turned red and the veins under them became more prominent.
She felt him holding his breath and not moving an inch anymore.
"Stefan what's wrong?"
In less than a second he rolled her down onto the bed and dashed to the other end of her room.
Now she saw what was going on.

She didn't want to be scared of him but her natural instincts were stronger.
In panic she flinched away from him to the other end of her bed.
"Elena, don't! Please, I won't hurt you, you know that". He turned his head away so she didn't have to see his red eyes.
All the vampire incidents from the last few weeks came to her mind and she couldn't suppress her fear. "Stefan I can't. Please, go!!!".
He turned his head towards her, his face was almost back to normal now.
"Elena I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to see this". He started walking towards her.
"Don't come any closer", she exclaimed and jumped off of her bed to get further away from him.
With every inch she moved away from him he felt a pain inside of him as if someone shove a knife into his chest.
"I could never do you any harm! Elena trust me!"
She saw the pained look on his face and somewhere inside of her she knew that his words were true. But tonight her fear was stronger.
"Please go. Now!".
He understood that no matter what he'd say to her, at the moment he couldn't take away her angst.
"Okay, I'll go. I'm so sorry Elena".
With that he walked to the door and then closed it behind him.
He was gone.

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